What is your business’ biggest current Vital Need?

[Pesso]

Hey Square Readers,

We hope you picked up a copy of our fourth book, Fix this Next by Mike Michalowicz, and are excited to dive in!

This book is all about learning to prioritize the problems and issues your business faces, in order to start fixing the most impactful ones first. By taking care of these, you can shift your strategy from putting out fires to making fundamental changes that improve the overall health, longevity, and profitability of your business.

Just like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs shows the concept of what humans need in order to survive and thrive, Michalowicz’s Business Priority Pyramid shows the same for your business. You need sales in order to get profit, which you need in order to focus on efficiency, which you need in order to have true impact on your customers, which you need in order to leave a legacy. 

The author also has a free evaluation and other resources on the Fix This Next website.

The first step is to identify which is your most Vital Need. To discover this, the author recommends finding the lowest need on the pyramid with the most boxes unchecked in his checklist (at the end of the post). Be sure to head over to Page 13 of the book to read more about what each of the points mean, so you can complete yours!

We’d love to hear your answer in the comments:

• First, copy & paste the checklist from the end of this post into the comments, and check off the ones that you’ve mastered. 
• Then tell us: What is your current Vital Need, the lowest on the pyramid with the most boxes unchecked?

Feel free to share any other thoughts you have about this book. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

View and Subscribe to all threads about this book.

Happy reading,

Pesso

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Checklist to Identify your Vital Needs:

THE 5 CORE NEEDS FOR SALES

__ Lifestyle Congruence 

__ Prospect Attraction 

__ Client Conversion 

__ Delivering on Commitments 

__ Collecting on Commitments 

THE 5 CORE NEEDS FOR PROFIT 

__ Debt Eradication 

__ Margin Health 

__ Transaction Frequency 

__ Profitable Leverage 

__ Cash Reserves 

THE 5 CORE NEEDS FOR ORDER 

__ Minimized Wasted Effort 

__ Role Alignment 

__ Outcome Delegation 

__ Linchpin Redundancy 

__ Mastery Reputation 

THE 5 CORE NEEDS FOR IMPACT 

__ Transformation Orientation 

__ Mission Motivation 

__ Dream Alignment 

__ Feedback Integrity 

__ Complementary Network 

THE 5 CORE NEEDS FOR LEGACY 

__ Community Continuance 

__ Intentional Leadership Turn 

__ Heart-based Promoters 

__ Quarterly Dynamics 

__ Ongoing Adaptation

[Pesso]

Oof. That's absurd. I'm so sorry that's happening with no end in sight. Sounds like moving is definitely the right decision. I hope it gets better and you find your dream place soon. Rooting for you so hard!

[scastrotattoo]

So to whomever this book is helping, I'm genuinely happy for you. 

Sometimes relating to the typical business read is difficult in applying to my industry, however i always try and usually find a way to adapt it in some transforming and educational manner. Unfortunately, this book has completely lost me, I would prefer not to waste anymore of my valuable time even finishing it, and as much as I enjoy our live discussions, do not have the capacity to brainstorm about it. I look forward to the next one and hope everyone enjoys their holiday celebrations!

P.S. I decided to go ahead and read "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber, to feed my passion for learning and growth, and highly recommend it. I'm barely half way through, and am utterly immersed!

[CareyJo]

Sam,

This is EXACTLY how I felt with our last book!  I could NOT get into it, in fact, it rather irritated me and I literally donated it to the library before I even got half way through it.  I've been feeling very guilty for not keeping up with this book.  I've had no time to read and I'm worried I won't get half of it done before discussion.  October through January are my busiest months of the year and I just can't give it the dedication it needs.

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, @scastrotattoo & @CareyJo !

I can absolutely appreciate deciding to cut your losses on it, and just skip the rest! If it's not resonating, absolutely no need to continue. 

Oooh, thanks for bringing back up The E-Myth! I'll have to make sure to throw it back in the voting soon!

It's definitely a much denser and more traditional business book. The benefit is that it's more of a choose-your-own-adventure / reference book. The first 50ish pages are the core of the book, and figuring out what your needs are, and the rest is very much the individual paths and only apply to the people who have those needs, and not necessary to read the whole book. It's also more of a "do the work on your own time" kind of instructional book.

So, @CareyJo  it's easy to catch up and only read the first 50ish pages, plus whichever your Vital Need section is. But also no worries if you don't have the time to read it! Zero pressure -- business comes first always.

Thanks again, friends!